Three Years in Europe: Places I Have Seen and People I Have MetBrown, William Wells
History
Three Years in Europe: Places I Have Seen and People I Have Met
Brown, William Wells
Great Britain -- Description and travel
heels accosted me for a half-penny to buy bread. I had scarcely served
the boy, when I observed near by, and standing close to a lamp post, a
coloured man, and from his general appearance I was satisfied that he
was an American. He eyed me attentively as I passed him, and seemed
anxious to speak. When I had got some distance from him I looked back,
and his eyes were still upon me. No longer able to resist the temptation
to speak with him, I returned, and commencing conversation with him,
learned a little of his history, which was as follows. He had, he said,
escaped from slavery in Maryland, and reached New York; but not feeling
himself secure there, he had, through the kindness of the captain of an
English ship, made his way to Liverpool; and not being able to get
employment there, he had come up to London. Here he had met with no
better success; and having been employed in the growing of tobacco, and
being unaccustomed to any other work, he could not get to labour in
England. I told him he had better try to get to the West Indies; but he
informed me that he had not a single penny, and that he had nothing to
eat that day. By this man's story, I was moved to tears; and going to a
neighbouring shop, I took from my purse my last shilling, changed it,
and gave this poor brother fugitive one-half. The poor man burst into
tears as I placed the sixpence in his hand, and said--"You are the first
friend I have met in London." I bade him farewell, and left him with a
feeling of regret that I could not place him beyond the reach of want. I
went on my way to the city, and while going through Cheapside, a streak
of light appeared in the east that reminded me that it was not night. In
vain I wandered from street to street, with the hope that I might meet
some one who would lend me money enough to get to Worcester. Hungry and
fatigued I was returning to my lodgings, when the great clock of St
Paul's Church, under whose shadow I was then passing, struck four. A
stroll through Fleet Street and the Strand, and I was again pacing my
room. On my return, I found a letter from Worcester had arrived in my
absence, informing me that a party of gentlemen would meet me the next
day on my reaching that place; and saying, "Bring plenty of books, as
you will doubtless sell a large number." The last sixpence had been
spent for postage stamps, in order to send off some letters to other
places, and I could not even stamp a letter in answer to the one last
from Worcester. The only vestige of money about me was a smooth farthing
that a little girl had given to me at the meeting at Croydon, saying,
"This is for the slaves." I was three thousand miles from home, with but
a single farthing in my pocket! Where on earth is a man without money
more destitute? The cold hills of the Arctic regions have not a more
inhospitable appearance than London to the stranger with an empty
pocket. But whilst I felt depressed at being in such a sad condition, I
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